It is very rare that a spin-off of a great show can match the magic from the show it forked from, but AMC's Better Call Saul is trying to be that one in a million.
WARNING : Spoilers
What makes a great show sometimes is just the writing. The bringing around of the story that makes you applaud the outcome of a drawn out situation, regardless if you would agree with it in real life. Breaking Bad was a show that, regardless of your feelings about drugs or what you thought the story was trying to tell, everyone agreed that the writing and cinematography was compelling and wonderful. Leave your reality at the door, sit at the couch and scream at Walt to not do the stupid thing you knew he was going to do. Sometimes you just have to pull for the antagonist.
In Better Call Saul, we already had a feeling that we knew Saul, but did we know Jimmy? It was a hard first season getting to know Jimmy and even worse was getting to know Jimmy's brother Chuck. It would seem that every time Jimmy had a failure, Chuck was there to point it out or was the cause of it. Chuck could lord over Jimmy with a perfect air of righteousness, because Chuck knew he was right and Jimmy was always wrong. Chuck knew Jimmy like the front of a well perused law book. If Chuck needed Jimmy to act or feel a certain way, Chuck knew which buttons to press and which hand to shake. There was no getting around that at some point, no matter how illegal, you wished Jimmy would get one over on Chuck.
But, not all is well in Chuck land.
In 1752, when Benjamin Franklin did the now historically famous kite experiment, one must assume that he could understand the enormous power that he had discovered. Energy, is power in form and in concept. Those who can harness energy, have the power over those who need energy to live.
If an Electromagnet Pulse (EMP) happened over the United States of America at the right altitude, it could destroy the method of transmitting power across the nation. According to studies done, it is estimated that 80-90% of Americans would be dead within the first year due to this loss of power. People who rely on power for medicine and care would be the first to die and then when the food shipments stop, the rest would die of either starvation or violence. People would be without power and feel powerless.
Even before man could harness power they attributed lightening as the most power force known to man and gave it to they most powerful mythical god, Zeus. Fear of being struck by lightening, sent by God, is also a common fear.
Power == Electricity == Power
Chuck suffers from Electromagnetic hypersensitivity
Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) is a group of symptoms purportedly caused by exposure to electromagnetic fields. A more specific term used in medical literature is idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields (IEI-EMF).
We aren't told initially why Chuck suffers from this, but as season two unfolds and Chuck attempts to put Jimmy out of the lawyer business, we get the hint at when it begin. Chuck started having Electromagnetic hypersensitivity when his wife left him to go pursue her own life and career. We know very little about Chuck's marriage, be we assume that Chuck might not have been the best husband.
After Chuck loses, in his mind, the hearing to disbar Jimmy, in part to Jimmy exposing Chuck's illness as being only mental, Chuck tries to cure himself. Chuck calls his psychiatrist and begins to do centering techniques and to take medicine to cure himself of his EHS. As he gets to a certain point of being cured, he begins going back to the office so that he can take a more active part of the law firm with his name on it and that he built up from nothing.
But, there is a problem, Jimmy has sabotaged Chuck's insurance so that it will be impossible for the firm to keep Chuck on without a unsustainable charge. Howard, Chuck's partner at the firm, suggest to Chuck that he should retire. This sends Chuck off on a plan to break Howard's position of control in the firm. Either Howard does as Chuck wishes or Howard has to buy out Chuck with money that the firm does not have. This plan fails splendidly. Howard decides to retire Chuck publicly in front of all the firm employees and agrees to pay Chuck off in installments, mostly coming from Howard's own savings. Chuck is crushed.
Chuck goes back to his house and his EHS begins to flare up. He begins dismantling all the electronics, that he had just put back into the house as part of his treatment, but he can't get it to shut off. Chuck keeps walking out to the electric meter to see that is still, slowly ticking away. Chuck starts to tear apart the walls in house, by feeling with his hands for electrical currents. None of this works. Finally, Chuck breaks and takes a bat to the electric meter. He retreats back to his living room and with a bit of foreshadowing during the hearing, Chuck pushes over a lantern and sets his house on fire in an apparent suicide attempt.
And now for the revelation.
Chuck suffered from hypersensitivity to power. Not to the power of electricity, but the power of people.
Chuck started suffering when his wife asserted her power when she went off to pursue her own career and left him behind.
Chuck started suffering again when Jimmy asserted his power and beat him in the hearing. Jimmy made Chuck look like a crazy man.
Chuck had to gain back his power. He tried to heal himself. He tried to assert his power over the insurance company and then over Howard.
Then Howard shut Chuck down. Howard over powered Chuck and took away the last of his power. Chuck didn't want to retire and be professor a college, because he knew he wouldn't have the power he had at the law firm.
Chuck was now powerless.
